BAFTA Games Awards to be streamed online due to coronavirus

After getting impacted by the coronavirus crisis, the British Academy took a different approach, insisting that the BAFTA Games Awards would still go on, albeit in a different format and streamed online.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, on March 13, the British Academy revealed that the BAFTA Games Awards had become one of the first major awards ceremonies on the creative industry's calendar to be impacted by the virus outbreak.

But rather than cancelling the ceremony, the team worked remotely amid a government-enforced lockdown to deliver an entirely pre-produced show to be streamed online.

For health and safety reasons, the ceremony would become an online live-stream to be broadcast on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Twitch, scrapping the red carpet and audience at Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's Southbank and foregoing the need for the many international guests and nominees to fly in from oversees.

"As things progressed, it was clear that we needed to move to a pre-produced show," explained BAFTA's director of awards and membership Emma Baehr.

Putting together a pre-recorded awards ceremony in the middle of the coronavirus crisis has seen BAFTA shift gears considerably, with the awards team producing the entire show remotely, working from home as per government instructions, coordinating time with talent and arranging script meetings.

"It's been a challenge as we are all adapting to each other's home circumstances. But everyone has been really supportive in pulling together to make it work. I hope they have found it creatively rewarding," Baehr added.

Several BAFTA members and nominees are also planning to get dressed up and host viewing parties for their households.